Johan Peter Koch (15 January 1870 – 13 January 1928) was a Danish captain and explorer of the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

dependencies of Denmark, born at Vestenskov. He was the uncle of the geologist

Lauge Koch Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan Peter ...

Career

J.P. Koch participated in Amdrup's expedition to east

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

in 1900 and was one of the general staff of the surveying expeditions to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in 1903–1904. In 1906–1908 he was a member of the ill-fated Denmark expedition led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, which mapped the last pieces of the northeastern coast of

. On the death of Mylius-Erichsen and two others on a long sled voyage from

Danmarkshavn Danmarkshavn (Denmark's Harbour) is a small weather station located in Dove Bay, on the northeastern shore of the Germania Land Peninsula, in Northeast Greenland National Park, Greenland. History The location was chosen as a suitable winter harb ...

Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the nor ...

, Koch along with the Greenlander Tobias Gabrielsen searched for the lost party, and found only the Greenlander

Jørgen Brønlund Jørgen Brønlund (14 December 1877 – November 1907) was a Kalaallit, Greenlandic List of polar explorers, polar explorer, educator, and Catechism, catechist. He participated in two Danish expeditions to Greenland in the early 20th century. ...

on whose body were recovered the charts hand drawn by Niels Peter Høeg Hagen which completed the map of Greenland. In 1907 Koch, together with Aage Bertelsen, was reported to have first seen Fata Morgana Land (), a phantom island supposedly lying between NE Greenland and Svalbard. This elusive land was allegedly seen as well by

from the air in 1933. Koch later led the 1912–13 Danish Expedition to Queen Louise Land, a sled expedition across the inland ice of Greenland, also known as the "1912-13 Danish Expedition to Queen Louise Land and across North Greenland’s Inland Ice," with

Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...

, Vigfús Sigurðsson, and Lars Larsen.

Honours

Koch received, among other honors, the Vega medal of the

Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG; ) is a scientific learned society founded in December 1877. It was established after a rearrangement of various sections of the Anthropological Society, which was formed in 1873 by Hjalmar ...

. He also became a member of the International Polar Commission. J.P. Koch Land in north-west Greenland was named after him. This ice-free peninsula is bounded by the

Greenland Ice Sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...

on the west side. There, next to the glacier, is mountain, which is the highest mountain in this land and also the northernmost basalt mountain in Greenland. On the north side, J.P. Koch land is bounded by Upernavik Icefjord, in the west and south by Eqaluarssuit Fjord ( sv). The land is about 1010 square-km in area. The J.P. Koch Glacier was named in his honour.

Publications

* ''Meddelelser om Grønland'', xxvi, xlvii (50 volumes, Copenhagen, 1876–1912)

References

1870 births 1928 deaths Danish explorers Danish topographers Scandinavian explorers of North America Greenlandic polar explorers Explorers of the Arctic {{explorer-stub

Career

Honours

Publications

See also

References